A Site About Aviation, Memory, and Inspiration.

Main menu

Category Archives: World War 2

As for the past few months, I’ve been immersed in republishing my father’s books on World War Two, I’ve become especially sensitive to extraordinary contributions made by otherwise ordinary people. War is well known for bringing out the best in people, amidst its otherwise destructive and horrific aspects.

Veteran’s Day, Armistice Day, especially on this date of 11.11.11, should rightfully give us pause to remember and thank those soldiers who gave their all for freedom.

There were a lot of soldiers in my family, such as my late Uncle Allen, a rear gunner in Short Stirling bomber, shot down over Germany and who endured two years, two months, and two days of captivity in a Luftstalag. His father, my maternal grandfather, fought in the Boer War and in the trenches in WWI. My Scottish great-uncle Donald McVicar served in the Black Watch in that same “War to End All Wars.”

In 1941, his namesake, my father, volunteered as a civilian pilot in the Royal Air Force Ferry Command. The RAFFC, under its several titles, had delivered 10,000 aircraft from North America to the “sharp end” by VJ Day.

The purpose of this post is to honor the service of those heroic civilians who put themselves in harm’s way in the RAFFC. They might have been paid more than military individuals, which did cause some griping at the time, but they were hired because they were, like Dad, already trained and qualified for the job at hand. They were desperately needed to fill a large gap in manpower.

When they were hurt, they had to pay their own medical bills.

When they died, their families had to pay funeral expenses and did not receive a pension.

If they lived to old age, as did my father, they were not considered “real” veterans and did not receive a pension or any sort of benefits.

Yet the proportionate losses of aircrew in the Ferry Command were comparable to those who were in combat. Men in the Merchant Marine also suffered the same shabby treatment.

So my heart is full as I write this, with deepest gratitude to these unsung heroes. Their wide-ranging and hazardous mission was secret, and their contributions therefore have been almost overlooked. Dad’s book, Ferry Command, published in 1981, was the first time public mention had been made of this unique organization.

I sincerely hope that you, dear reader, will also take some time to remember and thank these brave aviators, those forgotten fliers of World War Two.

If ever there were a milestone in the process we call “growing up,” I believe it’s when we can see our parents through the eyes of an adult— an empathetic adult, hopefully.

If your childhood has been difficult at times, and you are still nurturing the wounds you received from those who brought you into the world, perhaps you will find understanding and healing by wrenching your perception to that of an adult’s.

If you can place yourself, with all of your flaws and “meant-to’s” and “wish I could’s,” at your current age, into the perspective of your parent at that same age, you may be rewarded with a great sense of inner peace.

As I read somewhere, “thoughts of judgment block the light.” If we take the time to imagine our parents as young people faced with problems of every type, if we can say, what would we have done in their shoes?— then a healing light of empathy and understanding may very well flood your soul and heal you.

This is a process that has certainly helped me. My father was a complex man brought up in a time when men were never allowed to show emotion— and he was Scottish, to make it worse! Only when he’d consumed a sufficient quantity of Scotland’s most revered liquid, could he let loose his emotions about the war.

As a child, I was embarrassed. Children do not like to see their parents inebriated, crying, out of control, not being perfect parents. At that time, I was barely aware of World War Two and his contributions, and what he went through. And I seem to recall, he felt he hadn’t done enough, compared to the other good men he knew.

Since I’ve been able to read his story of his service in World War Two as a civilian pilot in the Royal Air Force Ferry Command, and realizing he was in his mid-twenties at the time, my childish heart has softened and forgiven him for those excruciating moments from my early years. He was letting out some of the pain he suffered when those brave guys he knew, flew off over the ocean and disappeared forever. Sometimes without a trace.

How often he remarked, “only the good die young.”

Every time he climbed into an aircraft, did he wonder, will it be my last flight?

So, in my mind’s eye, I see a tall boy, good-looking and lean, hearing an unfamiliar sound in the sky, shading his eyes against the glare of the Alberta sun as he glimpsed a flying machine for the first time. His heart must have accelerated as he watched the progress of what was most likely a biplane, across the bowl of endless sapphire sky.
And at that point, Don McVicar determined to find a way to master that aircraft, as his
escape from the dull life of growing grain on the Canadian prairies.

Without that life-changing moment, I would not be here. For, as I look back in as much
clarity as possible, my creation was tied up in my father’s aviation adventures. He would not have met my mother, had he not been a pilot in the Royal Air Force Ferry Command.

So you never know.

And then, suddenly, you do. And I’ve learned to respect such epiphanies, and to take energy from them, and direction. “Words on Wings” came to me in a flash— it’s a name which will allow me to explore many routes, but all with the underlying theme of aviation.

It’s not just about my father’s life, or the books he wrote about his long career in aviation — a career which took place in what has been called the Golden Age of Aviation. It was an age of innovation, heroism, and unique opportunities for a certain type of individual to shine.

My father’s story is interwoven, therefore, with stories both universal and personal, and so, I believe with all of my heart, it’s worth sharing. He took the time, and possessed the sheer will and determination, to write the books, so the hard part’s been done!

I also hope to inspire young people to fearlessly seek their dreams. When Don McVicar
was in his teens, the Great Depression struck: not just the United States, but Canada and the rest of the world. Yet somehow, he persevered and got his pilot’s license and a lot of other certifications in the harshest economic period in modern history.

He looked to the skies and followed his heart, brought his dreams into being: and so can we all.